General Chat / Discussion, page-7550

Thanks for that Rob, I am pleased to see that there has indeed been a Baseline study conducted and it has found that Rns levels are very low in the both the surface and ground water sampling of the project area. Not surprising, as one would expect when it is already known that the U & Th are currently locked up in the clays. In fact the clays do such a good job at trapping metallic elements that even the RE's failed to be detected in this study ! .

Of course this could well be a double edged sword, as any increase in Rns levels once mining starts and they have been liberated from their current (inert) setting, to be put back into the aquifers as highly mobile soluble salts, will stand out like the proverbial dog's balls.. And as per my previous, we already know that (Rns) weight for (RE) weight, there is just as much U&Th in this deposit as there is in most Hard rock RE mines, it is just that everything (including RE grades) has been diluted by an order of magnitude..

For an 'Independent' study I found it very amusing as to how much Company propaganda and culture seems to have permeated into the wording. Clearly the authors have taken Tim ?'s message that "hard-rock RE mines have a very serious problem with Rns, while Makuuta will not have one as the detected levels are non existent or very low". (mentioned no less than 7 times).!

" The ore-body is low in Uranium and Thorium radionuclides which are typically the greatest environmental challenge for hard rock REE mines globally. Baseline concentrations of Uranium are undetectable and Thorium either undetectable or very low in both surface water draining the orebody areas and in groundwater within the orebody. This should remain the case over the life of the Project".